Requiem

In 1950, at a symposium of the Museum of Modern Art, Nelson had been critical of the American automobile industry and its addiction to styling. Requiem—filmed at auto scrap yards with New York photographer and film producer Len Gittleman—resulted. The ten-minute film had an oppressive, morbid atmosphere intensified by a red filter. It showed car wrecks, smashed windows, broken antennas and mirrors, peeling paint, and slashed upholstery and culminated in shots of burning cars. Nelson presented the film in 1960 as a component of the multimedia show U.S. Versus Us.